


Job Description

by copperbadge



Category: Torchwood
Genre: F/M, Infidelity, M/M, Mildly Dubious Consent, Retcon (Torchwood), Service
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-02-25
Updated: 2008-02-25
Packaged: 2017-12-11 23:35:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/804541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/copperbadge/pseuds/copperbadge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I can't tell if that's open-mindedness or prostitution." "I prefer to call it an unwritten line on the job description."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Job Description

**Author's Note:**

> Set before S2. Please note tags for warnings!

"Keep the Hub clean, keep us clean and on-time, feed the various creatures, offer a hand where needed and make sure the team ticks over peacefully," Suzie says. Ianto can see Jack Harkness nodding in the background.

"I don't see that will be a problem," he replies with a smile, trying not to show his teeth. "After all, the staff is much smaller here."

It's a demotion, a large one, but it will give him the spare time and resources he needs, and it's what he asked for after all. Besides, nobody knows; a few minor alterations in his file and Ianto Jones, Field Agent Grade II is now Ianto Jones, Junior Researcher. The next line will read General Support for Torchwood 3, not a promotion but a lateral slide with a pay rise. He can use the money. 

Jack takes him aside after, and clarifies some of Suzie's instructions.

"The major problem here isn't a lack of efficiency or intelligence," Jack says, rather closer to Ianto's ear than he would prefer. "We have a lot of contentious...big personalities here. Me included. I'd appreciate it if you could make sure the more egregious fights and grudges don't last."

"Understood," Ianto agrees. 

And he does. Because Ianto takes pride in a job well done.

***

"It could just be sex."

Ianto has to pause and rewind, so he takes his time lifting Tosh's teacup from the tray and placing it amidst the paper on her desk. He'd been going over a checklist of what he needed to restock for Suzie and wondering if he could get away to see Lisa tonight without being seen. What had she been saying? Something about spending more time with him. 

Ah yes.

Ianto gives Tosh an appraising look. She's lonely, he knows, and her efficiency _has_ been falling off lately.

"Certainly," he says, allowing a hint of warmth into his voice. 

"R - really?" she asks, blinking.

"Well, you're unentangled and beautiful; I pride myself I'm not entirely untidy," he says with a smile. "But I'm afraid that's all it would be. Sex, I mean."

"Oh?"

"My life outside the Hub is a trifle...complicated," he says, and leaves it at that. 

"Well -- drinks? Dinner out? Your place? Mine?" she says, a note of cheer entering her voice. Ianto glances at Owen, who is watching. Well, that explains her willingness to accept his answer -- to even ask the question in the first place. Or perhaps not; Toshiko is a sensible woman. But he knows she is using him to get to Owen. He wonders idly if it will work. 

"I'm still unpacking," he says apologetically. He's been scavenging what he can of a second Unit, in case they're useful. Wouldn't do for Tosh to find out. "But if it's a bit of sport you're interested in, I can make private arrangements."

Tosh enjoys a weekend away every now and again, at a hotel a few miles outside Cardiff on the beach. She sets the schedule so they're not often interrupted. 

She likes to be cared for. Ianto undresses her and unpins her hair and kisses his way down her throat. He won't say he doesn't enjoy the way her hands clutch his hips, but it isn't infidelity to Lisa; after all, it's part of his job. It's job satisfaction when she pulls his tie through her fingers and he shrugs out of his shirt, nudging against her with his hips, guiding her to the bed. It's earning his pay when she tilts her head back and moans underneath him (this is a little unimaginative, he reflects) and he classifies his orgasm as a part of his fitness regime, because after all he's sheened with sweat and thoroughly tired afterwards.

She's not really in it for the sex, more for the attention, for a devoted man who wants to show her she's special. Ianto can make a woman feel special. He knows that much at least.

After they execute Lisa, she brings him coffee but never brings up what they did. 

***

Suzie and Owen are in a fight, and Ianto has done his best to soothe things over with hot beverages and quiet assurances that it's probably a misunderstanding and the other person is no doubt in the wrong and will come round in time. Suzie begins looking at Ianto speculatively so he makes himself available; bends to pick things up for her, wears the shirt he knows she likes, shows up one morning in running clothes and lets her see what could be hers before he changes into the suit. The fact that he went running because he had to escape Lisa's pain for a little while and feels guilty is beside the point; his opinions and sensations aren't as important as keeping the team whole. 

She catches up to him while he's taking his pulse in the locker room and slams him back into the wall, knocking the breath further out of him, and apparently thinks that if she gives him an early-morning handjob he'll be hers. 

It's a nice handjob; her fingers are slim and strong and he gasps, scrabbling for purchase against the wall. It's strange to be groped and not have to give back at all, to moan and shake through an orgasm and then watch her walk away. 

But he knows what's expected. So he does appear to pine for Suzie for a while until Owen and Suzie patch it up and he can go back to being totally invisible for her, which is a nice relief since Lisa's been miserable lately and between Torchwood and Suzie and Lisa he's rather tired. 

Suzie dies without finding out about Lisa. Perhaps it's better that way. Jack at least hesitated; Suzie'd have shot him.

***

It's been a long day, Ianto thinks; the team all look tired and older, and cup their coffee mugs in their hands as if he's thrown them a lifeline to sanity, a trail away from the ghost machine. He brings Gwen an alcohol wipe for the sticky blood on her hands and cleans them for her, sliding his fingers across her palm, and she lets him. Owen is watching him; Ianto wonders if Owen needs something, but covertly discerns that Owen's hands are clean already. 

So he does what he can, and heats a thick towel over the thermal resonator while Owen washes, bringing it to the antiquated shower room around the time he assumes Owen will be finishing. He carefully does not look as he lays the towel on the bench near the door, but Owen's voice catches him anyway.

"What's that, tea-boy?"

"Towel for you," Ianto murmurs. Lisa used to like warmed towels after a shower or coming inside from the rain. Now her Unit generates a regulated body temperature. He has to admit it is more efficient, but it lacks the variety and hedonism inherent in humanity. He can't wait for her to be well again.

"Bring it," Owen almost snarls, and Ianto carries the towel across the tiled floor, shoes sqeaking slightly when he steps in the puddled water Owen has splashed everywhere. The shower is still running; Owen turns off the spigot below the head and holds out his hand. Ianto places the towel in it. He is still politely staring at the wall when Owen moves forward (fast little bastard) and grips Ianto's crotch with one hand, cupping his head and yanking him down with the other for a kiss.

Owen wants someone to remind him he's alive. Ianto understands. Ianto provides. His shirt is getting wet and his silk tie too, but he's hard and it feels good and Owen doesn't let him get his trousers off before he's forced to his knees in the water and sucking Owen's cock, trying to replicate some of the tricks Lisa used to try. Not without success, apparently, to judge by Owen's appreciative noises. 

He whimpers half because Owen expects it and half because the taut fabric across his erection _hurts_ but Owen just bucks his hips and tilts his head back and looks almost beautiful that way, without the cynical twist his features usually have. Ianto grips his thighs almost caressingly, but Owen doesn't care. Which is fine. This isn't about Ianto. Just part of the job when Owen says "Yes -- there" and Ianto is glad there's a drain when he spits. Owen leaves, and Ianto seeks the privacy of the loo to take care of himself. 

The first time Owen catches him showering at the Hub after his suspension, he knocks his feet out from under him and kicks five kinds of shit out of Ianto Jones in the empty echoing shower room. But after that they're back to normal, and Ianto deserved it, so that's okay too. 

Considerate of Owen not to injure him where anyone was likely to see.

***

Gwen doesn't come to him until long after Lisa, so he can't gauge what she would have wanted before. Lisa colours everything Ianto does, haunts every minute of every day, not because of him but because everyone else sees him differently now and he can't blend in, which is terrifying. 

Actually, come to think of it, he goes to Gwen. He sees her slipping again like she did once before and he can't let her go back to Owen, he just can't, it's not fair to any of them now that Jack is gone. But she needs something, and he's sure he can provide. He hasn't let anyone down yet.

"Gwen," he says, after he's brought her a mug of coffee. "Can I help?"

"You do help," she says absently, rifling through the files Jack left behind.

"Yes, well, that's Torchwood," he says. "I didn't mean Torchwood."

She looks up at him and seems to see him but also seems so hunted, he really does feel for her. 

"What did you mean, exactly?" she says. He pauses to consider how to phrase this.

"You need someone to speak to about...all this. Someone who understands," he says slowly. "You can't go back to Owen, I think."

She blinks. "What made you think I would -- "

"Nothing, except that you did once before, so he's predictable."

"You have no right -- "

He holds up his hands. "I'm not implying, Gwen. I'm not. I'm saying. If you need someone. And you need safety."

He holds up a Retcon pill. "Talk or sex or whatever you want. And the Retcon after to keep your mind at ease."

She looks at him for a long, long time. "Why, Ianto?"

"Why not?" he says, and gives her a smile he picked up from Jack. Which was the right move. 

They don't go anywhere; they wait till the others have gone and find a quiet place in the Hub and she wraps her legs around his hips, her back against the smooth cool wall. He moves slowly with Gwen, lifting her a little each time he pushes inside, and feels free because Lisa is dead and Jack left and he doesn't owe anyone anything and Rhys isn't his problem and won't be Gwen's either. She grips his shoulders tightly and moans and is quite easy to bring off, easier than Tosh or Owen anyway. After she kisses him full on the mouth, and he thumbs the pill between her lips and gives her enough tongue that his own memories go slightly hazy as she swallows. 

They have this conversation six times. Four times she accepts and seems happier for days after, though she can never say why. The fifth time, right after Jack has come back (Jack's back but Gwen still needs someone to talk to), she frowns and says that perhaps Ianto shouldn't think such things. 

The sixth time, Jack catches them. 

***

Gwen has her head tilted back against the wall and her fingers tangled in Ianto's hair as he moans, biting the side of her throat. She's so close and he knows how to do this, though she's probably wondering why he knows how to do this. He murmurs her name and pushes against her as well as inside her, and she sounds like she's _angry_ but she comes and lets out a breath and smiles at him. She _always does this._

"You're right," she says. "I needed this."

She's said that three times before.

He slots the pill between her lips, kisses her, and watches her dry-swallow. 

"You have forty minutes to get home," he says, and tidies himself up and sends her on her way. And when she's gone, he sighs and sits down at his desk.

"If you're going to ask, you may as well do it," he announces. Jack fades into view, detaching from the shadows he'd been standing in. 

"What would I ask?" he says. "Seems clear-cut enough to me. Done that before?"

"Four times." Ianto smiles fondly. "Gwen's rather fun. More fun than Tosh. _Way_ more fun than Owen."

He lifts his eyes and sees blank shock on Jack's face. 

"My job is to keep Torchwood ticking over smoothly," he says. "If Tosh weren't still disgusted with me she'd be much more relaxed, you know."

"I can't tell if that's open-mindedness or prostitution," Jack says.

"I prefer to call it an unwritten line on the job description," Ianto says.

"What do you get out of it?"

"A job well done."

"Is that what I am too?" Jack asks. "A job well done?"

"You were," Ianto bends to square a few papers that didn't really need squaring. 

"And now?"

Ianto locks his eyes, and this time he's not going to look away. Jack can look away first. Fuck Jack, who is the only person who _saw_ Ianto when he fucked Ianto and then left them, _left him_. And now he wants Ianto to confess it, to confess the falling sensation he'd had the whole time Jack was gone. 

"That depends on you, doesn't it, Jack?" he says. "You can use me or you can _see me_ which is more than the others do and either way you can fuck me. But you can't use me _and_ see me, so you'd better decide whether you want to be a job well done or something that matters. And you had sure as hell better not feel _guilty_ if all you want to do is use me, because that's why I'm paid to be here."

***

Ianto has no idea what to do with Jack the first time. Jack, who set the stopwatch and pulled Ianto against him and asked how long he thought he could keep it up, all his clothes on, love that fucking tie. Ianto lasts five minutes before he gives and unbuckles his belt and Jack strips him with _absurd_ efficiency and it's not entirely comfortable over the desk but it's definitely new. If Jack wants to take out his anger at Suzie or his anger at Ianto or his anger at the _world_ for being _so fucking unfair_ Ianto will accept that, but before Jack comes he stops, his breathing harsh and shallow, and Ianto bows his head. 

"What a lovely spine you have," Jack says, fingers tracing down it. Ianto fights tears, and isn't even sure why. "You were wasted on her. Wasted on anyone who couldn't see how beautiful you are."

It's completely, numbingly unexpected from Jack of all people, hard Jack, ruthless Jack, Jack who _oh god thank you Jack for killing her, thank you for freeing me, thank you thank you_ and then Jack arches his hips and hisses and Ianto's lost. Lost completely to Jack. 

_Can't let him see it, can't show him, must be Ianto, this is just part of the job_ but Jack is pulling him upright and sliding an arm around his waist and kissing the side of his throat. 

"Let go of her. I know it feels like you'll fall," he whispers in Ianto's ear. "Let go of her. Step across to me, Ianto."

_I already have_ Ianto wants to say, but he says nothing, just grips Jack's hand on his waist tightly.

***

Jack stops in front of his desk and holds out his hand and either way knows Ianto's going to take it. 

Ianto stands, each of them trying to invade the others' personal space for vastly different reasons. Jack tips his chin and kisses him the most gently Jack's ever kissed him (because even when he was _back from the dead_ Jack couldn't resist slipping in a little tongue). 

"I see you," he says.


End file.
